Lancaster: Stewart's 2017 Cancer, Her Depression

Penny Lancaster says Rod Stewart was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in 2017, a fact the couple kept private while awaiting test results; Stewart even planned future tours from the recovery room. Lancaster says the secrecy and strain of his illness contributed to her worsening depression, and that therapy and a course of antidepressants helped her recover stability. She recounts a difficult IVF journey that produced their two sons, Alastair and Aiden, and says she would have left Stewart if he had not agreed to have more children; the couple briefly considered adoption but decided against it because of potential age gaps. In her memoir Someone Like Me and in interviews she has also discussed surviving childhood bullying and sexual assault and the emotional release and support that followed speaking out publicly.